LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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penmalife* 

pH83 




The Republican Party — Its Present Duties and Past 
Achievements, and Democratic Repudiation. 



i 1 '^'. 



SPEECH 

HON. JASPERPAOkARI), OF INDIANA. 

In the House of Representative.-!, February 5- 1*70. 



Mr, Speaker, it is my good fortune never to have belonged to any politi- 
cal party but that which has been known since 1855, I believe, as the Re- 
publican party. You will naturally and correctly conclude that I l*eel a 
warm affection for a party in which I found my lirst and only political 
home; a party with which' I began my political life, and in which I hope 
to close my natural life ; a party from which I have never had and have 
now no desire to wander; a party which has done grander and better 
things than any other party which has ever had an existence on American 
soil, which has linked its name with liberty, and which stands to-day, as it 
has for the last fifteen years, the true ami the only exponent of the princi- 
ples which underlie our governmental edifice. Of this great party it is 
my purpose to spend the brief time allowed me in calm but earnest speech, 
reserving a few minutes, if possible, for a glance at that party which has 
thrown itself across the pathway of the Republicans in every one of the 
great measures given to the country in the last ten years. 

Has the Republican party a future? I believe it has ; but there are 
conditions on which its future existence depends, and with the fulfillment 
of those conditions its future existence is as secure as its past history is 
immortal. What has our party done ? What has it yet to do ? I will 
answer the last question first : 

1. The leading measure of Republican policy at this moment, the grand 
issue of the hour, is the perfection of political equality by the final ratifi- 
cation of the fifteenth constitutional amendment. I will not argue the 
question. I regard it as a work already accomplished, and I name it only 
because we hear it said sometimes that with the passage of this grand 
charter of liberty, equality, and fraternity, the mission of the Republican 
party will be ended ; that* new. parties will then arise founded on new is- 
sues, and the present party organizations will cease to be. This is a mis- 
taken notion. It is true that parties grow out of particular issues, but 
they also represent tendencies of the human mind. There is always a pro- 
gressive element, a class of men with! w.hom not to go forward is to go 
backward ; and there is a class of men whose eyes are in the back part of 
their heads, and who are always looking to the rear. There is a new spirit 
and an old. The hope of the one is in the future, the other clings to the 
past. The one is young and vigorous, moving onward with the stride of 
a giant; the other is old, and loves its age, and rattles its dry bones, and 
loves the sound, and scatters ashes on every growing thing, and calls itself- 



1 — Co ' 



" Conservative." The one is Rome, the other is Carthage ; the one is Lu- 
ther, the other is the Pope ; the one is Cromwell, the other is Charles ; the 
one is Washington, the other is George III ; the one is freedom, the other 
is human bondage; the one is Grant, the other is Lee; the one is the Re- 
publican part}', the other is modern Democracy. Here is the 'j irrepressi- 
ble conflict." Jt has always existed, it always will exist. As physical 
light and darkness antagonize so do moral light and darkness. As the 
former will continue to exist while the material universe endures, so will 
the latter while the moral world remains. But light is more potent than-, 
darkness, and the new spirit is stronger than the old. When the two 
forces meet the new always triumphs over the old. In eveiy contest of* 
principles this will always be the case. It triumphed in our early history ; 
it won on the battle-fields of the South ; it gained its cause when the great 
jury of the people rendered their verdict in November last; and when :i 
crowning triumph is achieved, in the final passage of the fifteenth amend- 
ment, in spite of the persistent, stubborn, and factious opposition of the 
Democratic party, two political organizations "will remain; the one charac- 
terized as now by the fire of youth, the other by the wheeziness of age : 
and they will be judged according to their past career and future tendency. 
They that believe in progress founded on intelligence will follow the Re- 
publican faith; they that love darkness rather than light will find their 
fitting home in the Democratic party. 

2. When the fifteenth amendment is adopted, when political equality is 
established as the fundamental law of the nation, it will become the duty 
of the Republican party to enforce, protect, and defend the Constitution, 
with all its amendments, especially the last two, which are more likely to 
lie violated. I believe that Congress has full power of legislation to so 
control the States as to prevent any violation of the Constitution either in 
letter or in spirit. I regret that truth compels me to say that violations 
have been of frequent occurrence ; [and in one instance, at least, the 
remedy has been applied. Georgia has learned that we are a nation. We 
must take the ground that Congress ma}- legislate for the enforcement of 
any provision of the Constitution, and ma} r coerce a refractory State, n©> 
le s than a refractory individual. Would I destroy the rights of the 
States? By no means. I would give the State every right to which it is 
nit it led under the Constitution, but I totally repudiate the pernicious heresy 
• •I' the sovereignty of the State. 

" The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican Conn oi' ;nr 

■ i .n,.",i. ." 

So speaks the Constitution, uttering the voice of the nation. The term 
" United States" here, means the Government of the United States. Thai 
Government operates through a law of Congress executed by the Execu- 
tive, and perhaps in certain contingencies reviewed by the judicial tribu- 
nals. Now, what is this "republican form of government" which the 
" United States" is bound to u guaranty" to the State ? 1 hold that the 
phrase " republican form of government" derives all its force and meaning 
from the Constitution itself. A " republican form of government" means 
just what the Constitution of the United States has made it mean. All of 
us have a general idea of a republican government as distinguished from a 
monarch}' or an aristocracy ; and in general terms it is a government 
where the people rule through representatives chosen by themselves. Rut 
republican governments need not always be exactly alike in all their de- 
tails. They are not so. A republican form of government under a gene- 
ral constitution must partake of and be in accord with the spirit of that, 
constitution. If our Constitution upheld and sanctioned human slavery a 
State might have a ''"republican form of government" as pronounced in 
that Constitution, and yet be a slave Mate. 



Before the farnace-blast of war blew our rye?, open most of us were 

ready to admit that the Constitution of the United States gave counte- 
nance and even protection to the institution of slavery, if this CDhStrpction 
was correct, then the clave States had repuBiicaaiorms of .governiniaat^ 
[f BUCh a construction was not the correct one. then the slaV ■ did 

not have republican forms of government, and the' dutcd State's, 'ill the 
exercise of that sovereignty which is inherent in the nation, should have 
executed the guarantee by breaking every yoke and letting the oppressed 
go free. I believe the United States should hayedone this; J believe the 
Constitution was free inspirit and intended to ".sfe'tiure -bi-sof 

liberty " to all alike, and hence that was no republican fbj . ■•roment 

which held in bondage any portion of its people. But siipp&se the 1 Con- 
stitution had had an additional article expr.e'ssl^ brfcteeoing shivery, then 
I admit that under that Constitution a •■ republican form iritf" 

alight have been consistent With the institution of slavery. 

Suppose this were so until the thirteenth constitutional amendment was 
adopted. Manifestly, then, the phrase "republican form of government" 
would mean something different from what it did before, it, wctrld" hence- 
forth mean, beyond a doubt, the absolute freedom of all th • ; ; >!o of the 
State. And after the adoption of the fourteenth constitutional amendment 
the meaning of the phrase was still more enlarge!, and it cattle at* once to 
mean complete civil rights under the law and eq i nship for all the 

people of the State; and where this '.< refused by law or constitution there 
is not a "republican form of government." Kentucky is aSt republican 
in her government to-day. She does not approach th< \g of the 

pb'rase as measured by the Constitution of the United Stuftes, and a. 
'•republican form of government ; *' shouhl be " guarantied '"J to her and 
maintained by the whole power of the nation. And as soon as we reach 
the adoption of the fifteenth constitutional amendment the phrase so often 
ited will Lake a new and larger meaning still; and that State will not 
be republican in form, as measured by the Constitution of the United 
States, which does not secure the absolute political equality of all its citi- 
zens. Entire freedom of the ballot, purity of elections, and the right of 
e,vei'y man to vote and speak his honest sentiments — these are essential 
elements of a " republican form of government," and must bo i: guarantied" 
to and in " every State of this Union." 

But what if a State shall exchange a republican for an anti-republican 
form of government? What if Pennsylvania should provide in her con- 
stitution that no one should hold office in that State but iron manufac- 
turers, or New York should say that the governorship of that State shouhl 
be forever vested in the heirs male of Walter Van Twiller ; or Ohio should 
disfranchise all except men with red hair ? What if Indiana should pro- 
vide that none but straight-haired men should sit in her Legislature? 
What if Georgia should say that none but white men should hold office ; 
or Mississippi should provide that none but black men should ever be 
elected to the United States Senate ? Could there he found no remedy 
for these anti-republican grievances ? This is just what the guarantee is 
for. It is the remedy. We find in the Federalist these words — they are 
almost prophetic. Without a guarantee — 

'•Usurpation mjglit raise its standard and trample upon the libert.ic-- of the people, while 
the national (iovenrment eould legally (Jo nothing more than liei.old the encroachments 
wiih indicted ion and regret. A successful faction migm creel a tyranny on the ruins of 
oi\lcr and law, while no succor con Id lie constitutionally ail'orded by thu Union to the friends 
ami supporters of the Governmeut." 

The conclusion is that "with a guarantee such succor can be afforded." 
In father support of the view I am now presenting let me quote a sen- 
tonce from the speech of Daniel Webster, made in the Senate in 1850 : 



"There are in the Constitution grants of poifrer to Congress, and restrictions on these 
powers. There are also prohibitions on the States. Some authority must, therefore, ne- 
cessarily exist having the ultimate jurisdiction t<> ft x and ascertain the interpretation oi 
these grants, restrictions, and prohibitions. The Constitution has itself pointed out, 
ordained, and established that authority. How has it accomplished this great and essen- 
tial end t By declaring that the Constitution and the laws ol the United States made in 
pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the laud, anything in the Constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary not witnstauding." 

And Chief Justice Marshall, who ought to be high authority, says, in 
the case of Cohens vs. Virginia : 




pov 

Now, how shall this guarantee be enforced? Through the courts and 
by appropriate legislation. And when the law is passed it becomes the 
duty of the Executive to execute the law. The view of this subject 
which I have advanced, and which I hold must be adopted and made uni- 
versally applicable by the Republican party, is important at this time and 
appropriate ; for Congress has recently had and still has on hand some 
cases of the guarantee. 

I know it may seem to some that the principle I have adopted is. fraught 
with danger to the power and influence of the States, and will lead to the 
consolidation and centralization of the Government. I am not afraid of 
this. I am more afraid of the unrestrained power of the States. Whence 
has come danger in the past ? In every instance from the States, until at 
last a large part of them madly struck at the nation's life. We are a 
mighty nation, in size as well as in material resources. We already have 
one ocean on the east, another on the west, and are destined to have a third 
on the north ; while on the south the sea will not form the limits of terri- 
torial expansion ; but the outlying islands will be welcomed under the 
folds of the flag of the free. With such a vast territorial area, embrac- 
ing all the zones of the earth's grand circle ; with citizens of eveiy clime 
and nation of the globe , with interests as diversified as the scenery of 
the continent, the slightest political convulsion would shiver our social 
edifice to fragments unless we have power at the center — power sufficient 
to hold all the parts of the nation in one harmonious and homogeneous 
whole. So far from this consolidation tending to the destruction of our 
liberties it is our best guarantee of protection for freedom, our only suffi- 
cient safety; for it will give us a nation powerful enough to protect its own 
existence and the life and liberty of its humblest citizen. With the com- 
plete acknowledgment that " we are a nation," and not a conglomeration 
of thirty-seven distinct nations, we shall enter on a new career of power 
and prosperity, on " heights unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." Then 
we shall speedily realize, on a magnificent scale, the gorgeous language of 
Milton : 

"Methinks I see in my mind a noble, puissant nation, rousing herself, like a strong man 
after sleep, and shaking her invincible looks ; methinks 1 see her as an eagle" mewing her 
mighty youth and kindling her endazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam." 

Though I love my State of Indiana, yet when [I stand on a battle-field 
of the nation, or anywhere under the flag, I cannot help saying, do not 
call me an Indianian here ; call me an American citizen, the proudest title 
on earth. As an Indianian I am a foreigner to the inhabitant of every 
other State, but as an American I am the fellow-citizen of the men of 
Maine and California, of South Carolina and Texas. It may be distaste- 
ful, but it is none the less true, that our institutions of government tend 
to centralization. It is Avell for reflecting men to consider it. This cen- 
tralizing tendency would be dangerous in an ignorant and annualized na- 
tion, but among an intelligent people it is not, for they will mould it ac- 
cording to their wishes. The power will be exerted at the center, tout it 



will be furnished from the extremities ; and the people's liberties will be 
as safe as if the power was exerted by all the extremities — much safer ; 
for the Government will be as completely in the hands of the people, and 
it will be sufficiently powerful to protect all its citizens in all their rights 
and liberties. 

Think of the pleading wail of the Continental Congress and of the ina- 
bility of the "Confederation" to touch individuals; and then think of 
the vigor of a nation that is one consolidated power, as witnessed in its 
ability to cope successfully with a revolt of a third of her people occupy- 
ing more than the half of her territory. Our centralization is one of rea- 
son, and commands my admiration. Were it a centralization of brute force 
it would merit condemnation. Were the remote parts of our country dif- 
ficult of access to each other and to the center this concentration of 
power could scarcely take place, and would be more dangerous if it did. 
The steamboat strengthened the unity of the nation; and when the loco- 
motive reduced a fatiguing day's journey to a pleasant trip of a few min- 
utes, political power concentrated still more rapidly and surely; but it was 
reserved for the telegraph to put it in the power of the central Government 
to reach in a few seconds the most remote parts of her borders and govern 
a continent as readily as a single city. 

Pvecent utterances in Congress and elsewhere show that the old strife 
between the States and the nation is not yet ended. In such a struggle 1 
do not hesitate here and now to take my stand on the side of the nation. 
On this question of the power of States the Democratic party is still living 
in the year 1198. The Republican party has gone largely beyond that; 
but the events of the last ten years, even the events of the last two months, 
have shown us that we must go a step further, and maintain the power of 
Congress, under the " guarantee " clause of the Constitution and the re- 
cent amendments, to check by "appropriate legislation" any failure of 
any State to secure for all her citizens complete civil and political equality. 

3. Another work for the Republican party to do is to purify the ballot. 
Through the ballot the nation speaks, and we want to hear no uncertain 
sound ; we want to know that we hear the clear, undisguised voice of the 
people. We know that frequently in some portions of our country an elec- 
tion would be a farce, were it not that it is a fraud and a crime. If last 
November the electoral vote of the States had been so close as to have 
given the decision to the State of New York, the repeaters of the city of 
New York would have been the real masters of the American people, frau- 
dulently imposing upon the people a class of rulers against whom they 
had uttered a voice of condemnation. The violation of the purity of the 
ballot is a high crime ; it ought to be regarded as such, and punished ac- 
cordingly. In a monarchy, to commit an offense against the person of the 
sovereign is the highest crime known to the law. Here the ballot is the 
sovereign, and offenses against it ought to be deemed a towering crime, 
and the offender should be treated as a felon. 

4. I come now to a subject which I approach with confidence, and yet 
with a feeling of mortification and shame, that so foul a blot yet remains 
to find a home on American soil. At the Republican National Convention 
of the year 185G, a platform was adopted, one article of which pronounced 
sentence of condemnation against those "twin relics of barbarism, slavery 
and polygamy." The oiie has gone down before the advancing tread of 
freedom ; the other still exists, not couchant but rampant, boldly defying 
the Government and hurling its threats of resistance into the face of the 
nation. A gigantic crime, a crime condemned alike by the laws of man 
and the laws of God, flouts its hideous and shameless criminality before 
the eyes of the world, and covers its vilcness lry pleading the "rights of 



6 

conscience." Would we permit the k - conscientious " Hindoo mother to 
cast her child into the Potomac, were she living - here instead of on the 
hanks of the Ganges, or permit t he widow to immolate herself on the funeral 
pile other dead husband? What if Brighain Young should have a new 
revolution, authorizing him to put to death one half his wives, and giving 
his followers a like privilege ? What if it should be revealed to that con- 
scientious and exceedingly religious gentleman that three-fourths of the 
male children should be put to death? For his murders he would claim 
divine authority^ as he claims it for his present crimes, and would again 
defy the nation to touch him. 

The Rejtt&Ticaii party must go back to its early faith. There never 
was a grander plank in a political platform than that which was adopted 
at Philadelphia in 1856, it should become a living faith to-day. Of the 
u twin relics of barbarism " one is dead ; let the other die. Cut out the 
monstrous cancer. l-.xb nninate its root and branch. They say they 
will resist. What if they do ? Have we not power sufficient to compel 
submission? If it needs the sword and bayonet to teach Mormondoiu 
obedience to law, then use the sword and bayonet. I would have obedi- 
ence to law in that locality as well as everywhere under the tiag. I would 
have it peaceably if 1 could, but forcibly if I must; and I would liberate 
the white slaves of Utah, as we liberated the black slaves of the South. 
No man believes in freedom of opinion more thoroughly than I do. I 
believe fully in the liberty to worship God according to the. dictates of 
conscience; but I do ridt believe in making this right a cover for a hideous 
crime. These Mormons tell us plainly that they will not obey the laws, 
that they will not. give tip their " peculiar institution ;" that they will drive 
out of the Territory any officers of the United States who go there and 
attempt to cmforce the laws ; and yet we have lain " supinely on our backs " 
for years as if inviting them to '• bind us hand and foot." I confess I do 
not like this tender-footed way of touching a gjreat criminal. I would use 
the whole power of the haiiba to strike it down at a blow. It ought to be 
done, it must be done. I look to the Republican party to right this great. 
wrong. I go back to the promise made in its youth, and I call upon it to 
redeem the pledge. This must be a part of its great work. It belongs to 
our mission as a pariy. We have said it. and shall Ave not perform ? 

5! There is still other work for the party to do, which I can now only 
name, as there ife m.i time* f>r entering into detail. The measures I now 
mention should be secure I because the Republican! party has control of 
the Government, and will be held responsible. It must reduce the expen- 
ses of the nation to 1i;e iowest possible 1 point by the practice of a rigid 
economy, and it must secure -a reduction of the interest on the public debt, 
so that by reduced Interest and reduced expenditures we shall be able to 
lessen taxation- With etfdndmty of administration — and we are having it 
now, and shall continue to have it — and with a lower rate of interest on 
the pulilic debt, we may cut down taxes materially, and yet be able to pay 
off eaoh year a port.iqn of the principal of the debt. \Vc Eke 1 to see the 
debt diminishing ; but there is a possibility of paying it off faster than id 
necessary. 1 Want to see the delft diminishing. I want to have it all the 
time in the course of gradual extinction. But I should be satisfied with 
the payment OT I i 1 a'n one hundred millions per year — with the payment 
of one Balf'tnal am iiiht, or even i ae quarter of it. 

The percentage <>!'<: ibt iifcoif the whole property of the United Stales is 
gradually decreasing wi: '. I • c nstant yearly increase in the value of that 
property, and the average amdtint due from each individual in the United 
States is decreasing by the constant increase of our population. Besides, 
if We take away from the people and the property of the country a portion 



ol' tne Immens now borne by them, both will increase faster still, the pne 
i 11 value, the other in number. I know it sounds well to have it to say 
t hat our public debt is being diminished at the rate of $100,000,000 per 
y ear ; and if our attention is directed solely to the effect upon the nation 
in its corporate exist enee as a Government, it would meet my hearty 
ap proval. 7>u* there is another side. What is the effect on ( he ipeojSe*? 
If the heavy taxation requisite to raise $100,000,000 in liquidation of debt 
eac h year, cripples the industry and productive energies of the people, the 
goo d to the Government is more than counterbalanced l>y the evil Buffered 
by 1 he people, 

If the debt were funded in long- bonds bearing from three and a half to 
four and.Ja half per cent., the people could very well afford to pay that 
interc >t and use the money themselves rather than to be heavily taxed to 
pay o. Ta large amount of the principal each year. To illustrate: suppose 
my sh. ure and, my neighbor's share of the public debt is just $100 each, 
and we ;have the privilege of pay ling it off now or letting it run twenty-live 
years 1, v the pa yment of four per cent, interest ; he withdraws his .$10()' from 
product R c: use and hands it over to the Government, abstracting just so mueh 
from his produciive capital, where it might have been so employed as to 
double in .five years; I determine to pay the interest on my shaje of the 
debt, ie!t ; xm the principal run, and for want of a better investment I loan 
the hUo;; ;. i '.'.lit per cent., which I can very readily do in Indiana, and 
at the end 'Of the year [ hand over four dollars to the Government and J 
la}' awa^y f war dollars in my private drawer. The years roll round as you 
know year s iwiul, until twenty-five years have come and gone. 1 nave 
received m ] interest regularly on my money ; I have paid my dues 
regularly t!> jtihe, 'Government; I have $100 principal to hand over in full 
liquidation o f my u'ebt ; I have $100 interest in 1113' private drawer to transfer 
to my pocket to .replace the money just paid to the Governnnmt ; I have 
paid off my i b-ot, and it has not cost me a cent. But 1 would do better 
than this. 1 would make money by the operation ; for I should invest tin" 
interest each year i as well as the principal. This illustrates the advantage 
of what I proy>ose.; net to hasten the payment of the debt by an enormous 
amount each \ var, which must be drawn from the people by taxation ; but 
secure a reduc tien of the rate of interest, and then let the people have the 
benefit of the 1 >an by giving them a long time in which to pay it off. 

A moment in ore on another branch of the financial question and I will 
relieve your pat ieuee from a further consideration of this proverbially dull 
-subject. We sh i»uld enlarge or change the national banking system* so as 
to make it free, thus giving to the West and South a greater volume of 
currency and relieving the stringency that prevails now to an alarming 
extent. The nev. r bank issues should be based on bonds bearing not to 
exceed three and a half or four per cent., and the Government " legal' 
tender" should be withdrawn at the rate of seventy-five dollars for every 
$100 issued by tne banks. The banks would, of course, be obliged to 
redeem their issues in u lawful money," and there being no u lawful money" 
except specie and - greenbacks," when the greenbacks are all retired the 
hanks must reedecm in specie, and thus we shall havo found a haven of 
financial rest, gradually and smoothly and without any perceptible shock. 

Thus with interest diminished, with a uniform currency as good as gold 
in any State, we shrill be able to continue our reductions of taxes ami 
place many articles of necessity and raw materials on the free list. Thus 
we shall relieve the people from the burden of tho war taxes, which they 
have borne so patiently and grandly. 

Before I come to the second branch of my subject, perhaps you Will 
indulge me while 1 buy in a word or two what the Republican party ought 



8 

not to do. It ought not. it must not, it never can or will, give counte- 
nance to any form of repudiation of the national debt. It must not fail to 
hold the Government up to the complete fulfilment of all its pledges. 

I now turn from what the republican party is to do to what it has done ; 
and although you know its proud history well, vet it is not improper to 
revive occasionally the memory of its grand achievements. I stood once 
on a height which overlooked the town of Chattanooga, almost encircled 
by rebel encampments. General Sherman stood there with a field-glass 
in his hand, watching intently the movements of the troops of General 
Thomas. They inarched out on the plain and advanced directly toward 
the foot of Mission Ridge. There was a crash of musketry, the rebel 
skirmishers gave way, and the first line of rebel works was transferred to 
" God's country." General Sherman turned to his officers, and said he, 
" They have enlarged the area of freedom a little." 

The Republican party has enlarged the area of freedom until no foot of 
American soil is cursed with the shame of human bondage ; and it has 
written the word " Liberty " on the flag in flaming letters of light. The issues 
involved in the campaign of 1856 arose from the institution of slavery, 
hostile alike to free government and the freedom of man. This was the 
first campaign of the Republican party. Like a young athlete, it* went 
into the fight and battled with tremendous vigor against its powerful antag- 
onist. It retired discomfited but undismayed, and strengthened for a 
renewal of the conflict. The 'year 1860 crowned it with victory, and the 
new President, its noblest representative, took in hid hands the Govern- 
ment on the blackest 4th of March the nation ever saw. 

During the campaign a large portion of the opposing party had freely 
made threats of deadly hostility to the Government in the event of the 
success of the Republicans. Claiming the right of secession, they boldly 
declared their purpose to destroy the Union, and no sooner was the result 
known than they proceeded to put their threats into execution. The 
inauguration of Abraham Lincoln took place when the Government was 
almost in a state of chaos. Seven States had passed ordinances of seces- 
sion; numerous acts of war had been committed; all the forts on the 
southern coast except three had been seized ; the Government had been 
plundered of all its property located iii the South ; guns were planted on 
the Mississippi, and that river was blockaded ; United States vessels going 
to provision the starving garrison of Fort Sumter had been fired on and 
driven off. 

The leaders of the secession conspiracy seemed to have forgotten their 
country, the Union of these States, and thought only of slavery and its 
perpetuation; but the people of the North, arising in the plenitude of 
their power, thought only of the Union and its perpetuation. They saw 
the integrity of the Union threatened, the Constitution boldly and defi- 
antly violated in its most essential articles, the laws disregarded, the prop- 
erty of the United States seized by armed mobs; and the question's came 
home. Shall the Union be maintained? Shall the Constitution be re- 
spected'? Shall the laws be enforced? Shall the public property, the forts 
and arsenals of the United States, be protected? They could answer 
these questions ailirmntively, for the Uiiion party was steering the ship of 
State, and the Government was something more thap a rope of sand. 

The last message 6t Mr. Buchanan had taught the absurd doctrine that 
a State had no rie$t b> secede, but if it did secede the Government had no 
right to coerce it to submission, But Mr. Lincoln found the right and 
power, too, and the Republicans sustained him. A nd this is whatthe great, 
Union party has done. Garnering' into its fold all of every part}' who pre- 
ferred their country to'party lies, it nobly met every demand made by the 



g 

Government upon the people. It voted men and money, for carrying on 
the war. Nor was this all: it furnished them liberally and cheerfully. It 
used every means and appliance of warfare, and it used them with a vigor 
and power not surpassed if equaled in the annals of»history. At last it 
succeeded in overthrowing a rebellion the fiercest and most powerfulthat 
in the history of this world every rose or fell. This great task of the 
Union part}*, thus successfully accomplished, is sufficient to elevate it above 
the sphere of common party politics, and make it preeminently the party 
of the nation. 

I rejoice that it is my proud privilege to belong to a partj* thus emi- 
nently patriotic. I have almost envied the men who achieved our inde- 
pendence, who threw off the yoke of Great Britain, who fought seven long 
years that they might leave an inheritance of freedom to their posterity. 
But if the Whigs of the Revolution were the founders of the nation, the 
Unionists of our day are its saviours. If Washington was the Father of 
his Country, Lincoln and Grant and Stanton and Sherman and Sheridan 
and Thomas, and the rest of the boys in blue, are its defenders and pro- 
tectors. 

The Republican party never once faltered. It always stood firmly by 
the nation during that terrible crisis which sometimes caused our hearts to 
sink within us, and blanched even the cheek of the stoutest with gloom ami 
sadness. It was for the Union first, last, and all the time. It adopted the 
words of the iron man of Tennessee, "the Union must and shall be pre- 
served;" and it added, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." It 
furnished no traitors to take arms against the Government, none to kindle 
a "fire in the rear ;" but, shoulder to shoulder, its serried columns met 
every onset of the foe, with bayonets and bullets in front and with ballots 
in the rear, and it moved steadily on like an avenging Nemesis until its 
enemies cried, "Hold, enough !" Before it took up arms against the in- 
surrectionists it tried every expedient that patriotism could suggest; it con- 
sented to every measure that was at all consistent with the honor and 
safety of the nation. But nearly every State in which the Democratic 
party had control was fully determined to cut loose from a Government 
which they boasted they had ruled for fifty years. All peaceful efforts 
failed. The clash of arms was inevitable, but there was a powerful party 
upon which the nation could lean for support. It took our beloved land on 
its Atlantean shoulders and bore it with safety and honor through the 
terrible conflict. 

And in the midst of the mightly struggle which had been thrust upon 
us our party did not forget its great mission of freedom and justice. 
When the Republican party was first organized our banner, the ensign of 
freedom, floated over four million slaves. We boasted that this was aland 
of liberty, while four million bondmen stretched forth their bleeding hands 
to heaven, and with each revolving year, the chains were tightened am! 
the gashes deepened. The institution of slavery was hostile to freedom ami 
to everything that bore the name of freedom. It was hostile to free speech 
and a free press; hostile to free schools an I free States, and it stood in 
direct antagonism to the great idea which underlies the structure of our 
Government. Every nation has its leading idea. The leading idea of Rome 
was dominion. Greece's leading idea, one which rendered her immortal, 
was esthetic cultivation. The leading idea of France is glory; that pf 
England is aristocratic distinctions; while tin; great idea on which our 
Government is founded is the Rights of Man. But in deadily hostility to 
this fundamental idea of the Republic stood the institution of slavery, tt 
was the " execrable shape " that "thrust its miscreated front athwart our 
way." At the very inception of the Etepublican organization if proclaimed 



10 

its unalterable determination that the Territories of the United States should 
be forever consecrated to freedom; that yonder empire of freedom, stretch- 
ing away toward the setting sun, should never bear the tread of slaves. 
It never has, and thank God it never will ; and next to him our thanks are 
due the great Union libertydoving Republican party; and we owe to it, 
under Cod, the still greater glory that not only are the Territories free. 
but every rood of American soil, and the folds of the flag of liberty cover 
no longer a single slave. For long- years Freedom, like the clove that went 
out from the ark, found no resting place for her feet in this land of ours. 
Liberty was dead and buried in this nation. It had been wrapped in grave 
clothes and laid in the tomb. The Republican party stood at the door of the 
sepulehor and knocked, and cried with a loud voice. " Liberty, comef >rth !" 
And Liberty came forth bound hand and foot, and they loosed her and 
let her go 1 . Four millions of broken fetters fell to the earth ; four millions 
of humnn chattels became four millions of men. 

" He rose a than who laid him down a slave) 
Shook from his locks the ashes of the jft'ave : 
Ami Qiitwarcl trod, 
inio the glorious liberty of God." 

The Republican party has stamped the word " compromise,"' in its 
odious, political sense, out of existence. At the beginning of our di.'Iicul- 
ties with the South the opposing party cried " compromise, " and we went 
on compromising with a gigantic crime until the life of the nation had. 
well-nigh gone out. In an old Arabian story it is related that there was 
once a fox who was growing old. One night he engaged in a fogging e 
pedition and stayed out until the sun was risen and i>,v<jvy one at work, 
when he found it dangerous to return to his den. So he lay down by the 
roadside and pretended he was dead, saying, "Patience; in patience there 
is safety.'' Soon a man came along and kicked him to be sure that he was 
dead. Then came another, who amused himself by pulling out the fox's, 
whiskers. The fox only said " Patience."" Next came a hunter.. '• A 
fox's nail is a good remedy for a felon," said he, as he whipped out his 
knife and cut off a paw. " Patience*,*' said the fox to himself, y it is belie, 
to live with three paws than die with four." Then came a woman bearing 
a child en her shoulder, "The fox's teeth," said she, " will make a beau 
tiful necklace for my baby." So the fox let himself be robbed of his tec!.!;. 
repeating "patience," and lay still until a last thief tore out his heart. 
Need I make the application ? The nation had become the slave of southern 
Democrats. Life seemed to have deserted her; she was kicked and buffed 
and insulted ; and her only response was " compromise." Her nails were 
cut off, and she compromised ; her teeth her drawn, and she compromised. 
Then traitors grasped at her heart, and the Democracy called vehemently 
to her to compromise ; but a new spirit, that of Republicanism, had en- 
tered into and possessed her, and she arose in her might and struck down 
the traitorous hands that grasped at her heart's blood. 

','■■' !:en once we compound with crime we know not where to stop; and 
had the nation continued her feeble course of compromise treason in the 
guise of Democracy would have eaten away her life. That the nation was 
not so destroyed is due to the Republican party. It determined that 
freedom and not slavery was national. For its principles its members 
weffe Willing' to fight; and when rebels rose in arms against the nation's 
life they took their lives in their hands and their muskets on their should 
ers, slung their knapsacks, Idled their haversacks, bid bood-rjye to home 
and home comforts, and dared all the toils of the march and the stern 
trials of the battle to show the world that "freemen dare be free." They 
fought to make the Union firmer and better than it was, and the Constitu- 
tion freer and more just. There is something better in this land than 



11 

Union or Constitution. Man himself is better than either. The individual 
man for vrhorn free governments are instituted is infinitely higher and 
better than laws or constitutions. It traa to secure freedom for man that 
our Government was founded, that the Union was established, the Consti- 
tution framed ; and in so fir as they failed to secure this object, they 
:, e$e& correction. In so far as the Constitution worked unequally artd 
unjustly it needed correction. In so far as it failed to secure liberty it 
failed in the great end of Republican Government and needed correction. 
We should not conceive a government to be worth much that failed to 
secure us in our natural and civil rights and liberties. 

The Republican party fought for the Union not alone, but with it for 
the liberty it was formed to secure; it fought for the Constitution not 
alone, but with it for the civil rights and liberties of every citizan within 
its jurisdiction. It fought for a Union that should be superior to States, 
and could not be broken up and destroyed at the behests of traitors. It. 
fought for a Constitution that should guaranty freedom to every son and 
daughter Of the Republic. It fought for. a Constitution that should not 
' one kind of property and give it a large representation in Congress 
and refuse representation to all other kinds. It fought for a Constitution 
that should gWe no more privileges nor power to a citizen of South Caro- 
lina than to a citizen of Indiana. We fought to bury forever the days of 
Pierce and Buchanan, when the right of secession was recognized, when 
the first and highest allegiance was held to be due to the State, and when 
freedom of speech and of the press was as dead in the South under slavery 
as it was two years ago under Andrew Johnson. Four years of war 
meant something. It was more than a gigantic prize-fight. The war was 
fought that a Government of the people might not perish from the earth ; 
to smite down those who struck at the nation's existence ; to establish the 
fact that the Constitution is supreme over all the land, the will of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding; and for myself, I fought that 
liberty in this land might be perpetual, that the nation might cease to 
regard distinctions of caste and color, that we might reach t^Ap&hetrftlia 
of the temple) of liberty, that we might burst the thongs that bound us to 
the car of .slavery, and on the wreck of shattered systems and institutions 
build the altar of freedom sacred to the Brotherhood of Man. 

In the campaign of 1856 the question that was written upon the pblit- 
ical firmament was: '"Shall slavery be extended all over this land?" 
Though beaten in the contest, the people of the free North uttered an 
emphatic ''No! 1 ' as their answer to the question. In the years 1860 and 
1861 another question was answered. In this land founded by Washing 
ton, dedicated to freedom, an asylum for the opprosed of all nations, the 
frdest land, in theory, within the circuit of the sun, the people saw written 
on the political firmament the strange and terrible quest ion : '• Shall the 
nation perish at the hands, of rebels and traitors?" Clear, sharp, and 
piercing rang out the answer, "No!" Four battlc-yer.r3 made good the 
answer, and a nation preserved stood a monument to the struggles of a 
patriotic people. In the yciiv 1866 the question came, - Shall the rebel 
lious States he restored on the basis of universal freedom?" AM the 
people answered "'Yea! I el justice bo done; let the boon of liberty be 
the inheritance of every en an ; let the poorest and humblest citizen be the 
equal before the law of the richest and most powerful." 

in 1888 the people, again speaking tftrbhgh the Republican party, de- 
clared that reconstruction otl the basis of equal rights for all men should 
bo carried out until it sftood as the law of the land. The platform, the 
candidates, the papers, and the orators oftha opposing party told us that 
the reconstruction acts of Congress wore " unconstitutional, revolutionary, 



n 

and void," and that they should be " trampled into the dust." But the 
Aoice of the people was heard ; and if not the voice of a god, it is at least 
the voice of the only sovereign we acknowledge, and this ringing voice 
declared in unmistakable tones that the reconstruction measures, founded 
on liberty and justice and protection for all, sball stand not only as the 
law of the land, but as a cardinal principle in our governmental policy, 
settling it for all time to come that this nation stands on the broad basis 
of universal freedom. 

The Republican party has decreed justice for all the dwellers under the- 
jurisdiction of our Constitution. This great nation cannot afford to be 
unjust, not even to the humblest of God's creatures. A government of 
the people must be for the people and fry the people, for and by all of 
them. 

The Republican party has decreed protection for every man on every 
foot of American soil. In this afternoon of the nineteenth century, but a 
few months more than a year ago, in this nation of freemen, there were 
thousands who voted their honest sentiments only at the imminent risk of 
their lives, and thousands more who, under a Kuklux Klan reign of terror, 
dared not attempt to exercise the right of suffrage. And strange as it 
may seem, strange as it must appear to other nations, strange as it will 
sound in history, it was th^ nation's enemy who was protected in the 
expression of his will at the ballot-box, while the humble friend of the 
nation was left "defenseless to his enemies." And stranger yet, it was 
the traitor, stained with the blood of the nation's defenders, who stripped 
from the nation's friends the rights which he claimed and exercised for 
himself. Thank God for the better time coming, for the decree of the 
Republican party that protection shall be guaranteed to every man on 
whatever square foot of American soil he may stand, that he may speak 
his honest sentiments and be protected ; that he may sing Yankee Doodle, 
Hail Columbia, Rally Round the Flag, or even Old John Brown and be 
protected ; that he may vote his political sentiments and for whom he 
pleases, and be protected ! But I am dwelling too long on this pleasing 
theme. 1 am loath to leave it. I am proud to be connected with such a 
party. It is to-day, as it has always been, the party of freedom and pro- 
gress ; it,, is Beyer behind the age; it marches shoulder to shoulder with 
the present ; it represents all that is good and great in the nation ; it has 
saved the nation from destruction; it has enlarged and extended human 
liberty, and it will very soon, by the ratification of the fifteenth amend- 
ment, crown with justice the temple of the nation's freedom. 

I shall now " move upon the works " of the Democracy. After what 
passed in this House a few days since I cannot take my seat, after having 
pronounced the duties of the Republican party and glanced at its past 
history, without presenting before this House and the country the Demo- 
cratic party; and I impeach that party of high crimes and misdemeanors. 
In the name of a people whose executive and legislative trust it betrayed 
1 impeach it as faithless to the nation and false to the Government it has 
sworn to preserve, protect, and defend. In the name of liberty I impeach 
it as false to our grand idea of human rights. In the name of honor, of 
niiiiraoii honesty, 1 impeach it as guilty of a deliberate attempt to destroy 
our national credit and spread commercial ruin through every Slat:- 
county, city, village, and hamlet in the land. 

I will not trace the history of the i |empcraitic party during the years 
18G0, 180 1 , L862, L8.&3, lsr.1, :uid 1365. The details are too sickening. 
Stm ', nominis ujnbro, ! Like the hypocrite who steals the livery of tin- 
court of Heaven to serve the devil in, so Democratic lenders stole the name 
Democracy to serve -J elf. Davis in. History will teach to the latest pos- 



terity that all through those dark and dreadful years of the nation tlio 
Democratic patty, in all its acts as a political organization, in its secret 
conspiracies, and in the public utterances of many of its leaders, gave aid 
and encouragement to the rebellion of the southern States, the blackest 
conspiracy that ever scourged the earth. Had their mad schemes suc- 
ceeded, like the petty South American republics, we should have been 
engaged in continual broils. Border raids, bitter feuds, and deadly inter- 
necine wars would have drenched the whole land in blood; peace would 
have fled the habitations of men, and only the " Cains of humanity tyalked 
proudly with impious brow about the ruins of liberty on earth." 

Such was the banquet to which we were invited. Oh, Democracy ! 
Democracy ! how many crimes have been committed in thy name! The 
last vestige of principle had abandoned the party. It lay a stranded 
hulk through whose shattered sides the quintessence of Democracy had 
all leaked out, and good men fled from it as rats flee from a sinking 
ship. 

From the beginning of the war to the present moment our political op- 
ponents have had but one policy, to predict evil and then labor to verify 
the prediction. They prophesied that the rebellion could not be crushed 
by war, and then exerted all their energies to make good the prophecy. 
They predicted the success of the rebel confederacy', and then assisted the 
rebels in their work. They said the war was a failure, and then tried to 
make it so. They predicted a war of races in the South, and then tried 
every means possible to bring on a war of races. They prophesied that 
" greenbacks " would be utterly worthless, and ever since the war they 
have advocated just that course which if adopted would inevitably make 
them worthless ; and now, in furtherance of the scheme, the gentleman 
from Indiana, my colleague, who addressed the House on Friday of last 
week, proposes to issue $1,600,000,000 of "greenbacks" in addition to our 
present currency. Then that prophecy will be fulfilled ; and as the distin- 
guished Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency in 1SG4 predicted 
in this Hall, "greenbacks" will indeed go forth "with the mark of Cain 
upon them, fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth." 

From the beginning of the war, right on through those bloody years, 
and up to this moment, the Democracy have predicted the downfall and ruin 
of the national credit, and have never ceased to labor for the verification 
of their predictions ; but with most obstinate and unreasonable persistency, 
the credit of the nation has steadily improved since March 4, 18U!>, in 
spite of their ill-omened work. As it is impossible now to calculate how much 
the encouragement afforded the rebellion by the Democratic party pro- 
longed the war, or how much it added to the burden of the national debt, 
or by how many scores of thousands it swelled the numbers of the maimed 
and the slain, so we never shall be able to estimate in its full force the 
depreciation of our national wealth and the crippling of our material pro- 
gress by Democratic threats of repudiation, open and covert. At hreat of 
repudiation from a great party benumbs all the channels of trade as the 
shock of a galvanic battery does the human system. 

And when I speak of threats of repudiation I allude not only to the gen- 
tleman from Ohio [Mr. Mungen] or the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. 
(Jolladay ;] I allude as well to the more dangerous, because more polished 
and plausible blandishments of the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Voor- 
hees ] More dangerous for another reason, because in his covert repudia- 
ble has a larger following. The party stands at his back and cheers him 
on to the same goal which his confreres in repudiation have reached by 
one step, while he takes two. Sir, you saw the party gather around him 
the other day and give him hearty greeting when he had finished. Their 



14 

congratulations were given not, so much for his polished eloquence as for 
the winding walks and flower strewn, pathway is by which he conducted them 
to the mepthitic gulf into which the gentleman from Kentucky fsjxrang at a 
bound. The}' stand aloof, and coldly, nay, hotly rebuke those who call 
I bing6 by their right names, who with more honesty but less discretion say 
boldly, " Wipe out the debt by a refusal to pay." This is the goal they 
desire to reach; but they would not travel it in the blaze ol' day; they 
prefer to walk through pleasant by-paths, well shaded with green. You 
know the approval my colleague received ; and shall I prove to 3-011 that 
his speech means repudiation from the beginning to the end of it ? Does 
the gentleman deny that such is the fact'? Himself shall be my witness. 
Out of his own mouth will I condemn him. He foots up the amount of 
debt which he says has no consideration, and he makes it $I,. r >jO,558,i!50 ; 
largely more than one-half the entire debt, principal and interest all told. 
And here is what he says of this portion of the debt — I read from the 
(1 lobe: that this — 

" Vast proprotion of the public debt as it is stated upon paper has no existence v. iia t i-.<-r 
in reality : that it is a fiction created hy ubj'ust &ud seandatdus legislation, or tue stul more 
unjust ami scandalous perversion of the true contract : t hat tt is a fraud fasteriefl upon the 
labor of the nation utterly without con: harJegal or moral," 

And again he pronounces it — 

" A speculation as wholly and totally unsupported by .n particle of cousiderat ion as t'aa 
hignwayman,'s profits upon a midnight adventure.*' * * * » * 

" I propose to tear away the obscuring veils which have heretofore sfirofade 1 this ques- 
tion. I shall run a dividing line between the sound and the unsound, t hat an hopt -< 
people may see plainly their duty to themselves and their posterity". 

I should not talk in that way about a private debt which I owed if 1 

intended to pay it, and if the gentleman owed me and talked of his obliga- 

s after that style I should expect to get my money by law, if I got it 

at all. He is ready, then, by his own words to strike down more than one 

half the debt, covering up the repudiatbr's tracks by arguing a want of 

consideration. But this is not all. He proposes an issue of currency for 

the ''payment" of the five-twenty bonds, and then says : 

"Three-fourths of the dent would he paid, and the balance can be encountered with hope 
and without systematic oppression." 

I may be very ignorant. My experience in this body is but short; but? 
with most plain people, I have supposed that the leL'/al-terider note was a 
delit which the Government was legally and morally bound to pay ; yet 
here is my distinguished friend assuring us that when the five-twenty 
ii -n Is are cancelled by an issue of $1, (500,000,000 of greenbacks "tl; 
fourths of the debt will be paid." I cannot understand it. I never could, 
(hough I have heard it so much. If I could understand it I think I could 
soon accumulate a fortune by running in debt. I would commence with 
my friend and colleagues. [ would borrow #.">,i>00 from him, giving him 
my bond, payable in one year at six per cent. When the year came around 
I would hand him my note of hand wit hunt interest and payable at my 
pleasure, receive my bond, and tell him he is paid. Of course he would ba 
content, for that is his theory. 1 think 1 could make a fortune in a few 
mouths, provided Democrats will practice what they preach. 

Is this kind of trickery M payment ? " It is nothing but repudiation, and 
'.cry thinly disguised at that. I confess 1 prefer the bold advance of the 
vntlcinan from Kentucky. There was a xory good old lady once told 
her pastor that she wished to ask him a epiestion which hud perplexed her 
mind for more than twenty years. He bent his ear to listen, and said sM, 
•• When Elijah was taken to Heaven in a chariot of tire, did he go straight 
up or did lie go slantindicular '( " I do not know the gOod paster's answe:, 
but for myself, ii" I were sealed in Elijah's flamaflg car, as 1 would rather 
go direct than slantwise \o Heaven, so I would rather gptrtUg '" sheer over 






15 

the crystal battlements" direct into the bottomless pit of repudiation than 
to be blown about in a " Hmbo " of greenbacks, rigaaging down into the 
same bottomless gulf. Yes, if I were going to repudiate the national debt 
I would strike openly and with imperial boldness; and, fo* the encourage- 
ment of the gentleman, from Kentucky, I can assure him that he is follow- 
ing an illustrious example. The idea of repudiation is not original with 
any of the gentlemen of this House, whether advocating it in its open or 
its covert form. They have an illustrious master in this bad iniquity— 

"iro, above the rest 

In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 

stood like a tower." 

fa all history there is no more repulsive character than Philip II of 
Spain. Every fiber of man's nature, every sentiment of humanity, revolts 
and sickens at the view of this monster clad in crime as with a Varment. 
It 'was fitting that human depravity should iind its ''lowest deep" in such 

a wretch, and that he, the living embodiment of crime — himself a hell 

should teach the nations and his disciples in the American Congress how 
to wipe out the debts he had created. I give you his words after no had 
lost the Spanish Armada, after he had ravaged'the Netherlands, desolated 
Protestant Europe, and created a burden of debt not easily borne. Listen 
to the imperial ukase: 

'•Whereas it has come to our knowledge that Notwithstanding all which our roval in- 
• nines from this monarchy ami from wit bout have yieled,'' * * # . * 

"we. find ourselves now so wholly exhausted and ruined, and, as it were 
reduced to nothing, that although the foremost cause of this ruin is the great and incredi- 
ble Expense with whieh we have sustained and are still enduring for the pxoctectioD of 
UnM.i.dom, other Chief causes arc the grievous damages, discounts, and interest which 
have been forced upon us, and which at present obtain in the finances, lulls of exchange 
and other obligations whieh have been made and taken up in our name, since we could not 
. scape the same, in order to provide for our so entirely necessary and pressing nccessi- 
lies." * * " Therefore to put an end to such financiering and unhal- 

lowed practices with bills of exchange, to the disservice of the Lord God and of us, with 
great injury to our kingdon," * * * * " we have now given command 

lO devise some means ot restoring order;" * * * * -'and we have, 

found no other remedy than to call in and to disburden our roval incomes, liberating the 
same from the unjust damage puL upon them through this financiering and bills of ex- 
change, which we have suffered and are continuing to suffer, at the time we made such 
contracts, iu order to avoid still greater embarrassments that would have arisen had there 
been want of provision for our military affairs." * * * * "Accordingly 

v. e suspend, and declare suspended, all such assignations made by us in any manner what- 
soever;" * * "and we order the moneys coming from such 
pledged property to be henceforth paid into our royal treasury, for the support ofour own 

i c-sit ics, declaring from this day forth all payments otherwise made to be null and 

\ oid." 

This was perfectly simple. There was no attempt to disguise the villain v of the 
"transaction." Would you know the effect of this high-handed outrage"? The 
historian may answer: 

" The effect of the promulgation of this measure was instantaneous. Two millions and a 
half of bills of exchange sold by the Cardinal Albert came back in one day protested, fli 
cliiel merchants and bankers of Europe suspended payment. Their creditors became bank- 
rupt. At the I'rankfort fair there were more failures in one day than there had «ve 
been in all the years since K rank fort existed. In Genoa alone a million dollars Of interest 
were confiscated. It was no better in Antwerp ; but Antwerp was already ruined, lucre 
was a general howl of indignation and despair upon every exchange, in evex*y counting- 
room, in every palace, in every cottage in Christendom, such a tremendous repudiation 
of national debts was never heard of before. There had been debasements of t lie currency, 
pel t y frauds by kings upon their unfortunate peoples ; but such a crime as this had ncvur 
been conceived by human heart before." 

•• Bad never been conceived by human heart before." Then the former days 
were better than these ; for here in this august presence, before the features of your 
illustrious early statesmen, beneath the goddess which crowns your Capitol, we find 
the disciples of Philip II. 

And what would be the effect of such a measure here ? It would be a? instanta- 
neous as in Europe. Scores and hundreds of millions of bills would be protested. 
Our chief merchants and bankers would suspend payment. Their creditors would 
become bankrupt There would be more failures in our principal cities in one day 
than in all the years since we have been a nation. Merchants, wholesale and retail, 
jobbers, banke. s and brokers, savings banks, and life, fire, and marine iusur.-tncu 
companies, manufacturers, and tradesmen of every kind and degree would couie 
down in one total crash. A genera] howl of indignation would arise from every 



16 

quarter of the land. The wail pf despair would be heard in the palace of the rich 
and the fog-hut of the pioneer. Hundreds of thousands would he deprived of their 
daily employment and their daily bread. Starvation would come to add its horrors 
to the scene. All Europe would stagger under the blow, and an indignant world 
would unite to blot America from the map of the nations. An easy task ; for no 
man, native or foreign, would lift a hand or offer a penny in defense of a nation 
with a repudiated debt, p-ostrate and ruined business, and a starving population. 

Sir, 1 believe the American people are honest. I believe they are willing to pay 
their jusl debts. I believe they would bow their heads in the dust with shame if 
they thought the Government would refuse the payment of its righteous indebted- 
ness. 1 have faith in the American people, and I should not dare to look my con- 
stituents in the face if I did not indignantly deny for them the charge that they are 
willing to repudiate one dollar of what they justly owe. I will not impute to them, 
or permit, others to impute to them, such amazing dishonesty. They may be poor in 
purse, but they are rich iu integrity, and a good name is to them above rubies. 
Their hands are hardened with toil, but no stain of dishonesty rests upon them, nor 
ever will by their consent. They wiil not stultify their manhood, and at the same 
time bring irretrievable disaster on the material interests of the country. I look 
with pride on our present wonderful physical resources and progress. I see com- 
merce running a career unparalelled in all the past. 1 see the Atlantic coast wed- 
ded to the pacific, and the marriage-ring is iron. I see the Old World wedded to 
the new, and the hymeneal bond is an electric cord at the bottom of the sea. I see 
our inland commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and mining interests adding scores 
of millions annually to our national wealth, and his rich and fruitful present tells 
me that re pudiators will be scattered by an honest and prosperous people as doves 
flee from a farmer's barn '' when summer lightnings stab the roof." 

And, looking down the future, I see a people happy in the consciousness of their 
integrity. I see tills people rising in power and dignity among the nations. It has 
' fought a good fight" and "triumphed gloriously." It "has kept the faith" with 
its creditors, audit stands in the pure white light of truth, honor and honesty its 
chief ornament and crowning glory. I see the nation speeding on in her unrivaled 
career; peace dwelling in all her borders; all her material interests gaining new 
conquests ; education humanizing and elevating the humblest and poorest ; a people 
free, intelligent, enterprising, rich and powerful ; pretection and equal rights guar- 
anteed to all, the fabled Atlantis realized at last in liberty regulated by law. 



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